Bruisin Gym lands close decision over Job Walters

Leroy Brown, Gleaner Writer

Stony Hill's Bruisin Gym scored a thrilling victory over Job Walters Gym from Anchovy in St James last Saturday night, as the National Amateur Boxing Championships - promoted by the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control and sponsored by Burger King - came to a close at the Stanley Couch Gym.

Both gyms depended on their promising young teams, but Bruisin had greater depth and this took them home - 11 points to nine.

Another young team of boxers from Boys' Town helped their gym to share third place with Stanley Couch Gym, with eight points each.

The message that came out of the championships was that there are several bright young prospects, who are ready to fill the void created recently when most of the top amateurs moved up to the professional ranks. Many of them are schoolboys, who are participating on their own, since there is no organised boxing programme in schools at this time.

Gold medal winners

The five gold medal winners for Bruisin gym were Junior fighters Damian Fuller (light flyweight) and Ramone Thompson (flyweight), Novice division's Anthony Clarke (light welterweight), as well as Open division boxers Michael Gardener (middleweight) and light welterweight Anthony Clarke.

Job Walters Gym had three gold medal winners. They were Open division welterweight champion, Oraine Walters, who was named the Most Outstanding Open division boxer; Junior division middleweight champion, Romaine Richards, who also won the Most Outstanding junior boxer award; and Novice division lightweight champion, Roxroy Farquharson. Richards and Farquharson are students at Anchovy High School.

One of the night's surprises was the performance of the young boxers from Boys' Town, who won three gold medals. This is a new gym and the boxers performed above expectations. Boxers from Stanley Couch also did well to take home three gold medals.

The standard of boxing was not the best in recent championships, but there were standout bouts. The junior division's middleweight contest between Romaine Richards and Brandon Brown stood out, as did the open division battle between Ricardo Carter of G.C. Foster Gym and Fana Walker of Stanley Couch.

Hetter technical boxer

Carter was the better technical boxer, but he picked up two warnings for holding that cost him points and he ended up the loser as a result. He was, however, awarded the award for special effort in that division.

The open division battle between Anthony Clarke of Bruising Gym and Oshane Creary of Heavy Metal had the crowd cheering wildly and saw Clarke coming out with a close decision.

The most outstanding novice boxer was middleweight Jermaine Bowen from Heavy Metal Gym and the special effort award in this division was won by Andre Grey from Boys' Town.

It was a night when boxers in the lighter weights excelled.

Apart from winning the championship trophy, Bruising Gym also won the Kingsley Goodison Shield as the gym showing best sportsmanship and discipline. Their head coach, Carl Grant, was named the Coach of the Year.